There are intelligence briefings that are traditionally given to the current president and former presidents. These intelligence briefings are highly classified documents, and President Biden is afraid of what Trump can do with these intelligence briefings in hand.
Biden states that Trump does not deserve these briefings because of his "erratic behavior" before and during the attacks on the Capitol. Biden notes, "What value is giving him an intelligence briefing?", questioning what benefit will come out of giving Trump these briefings. It seems that not only Biden is the only one who wants Trump gone from this former presidential circle, as the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Adam B. Schiff, notes that "there is no circumstance in which this president should get another intelligence briefing".
All of these figures are giving their opinions on why Trump shouldn't be receiving these intelligence briefings, but there seems to be a lack of evidence on why Trump shouldn't receive them. However, the New York Times article gives plenty examples in which Trump "abuses" his privilege of having information. There was an instance where Trump told the Russian foreign minister and ambassador classified information about the "Islamic State" coming from Israel, which left Israelis "outraged". Additionally, Trump took a photo with his phone of a satellite image showing explosions at a missile launchpad in Iran. This leak of information could have given terrorists a potential advantage in finding the surveillance satellite that took the photo and taken it out.
Trump has had a history of misusing information, but regardless, should Trump continue to have access to these briefings?
1 comment:
Although it may be tradition to give intelligence briefings to former presidents, I think sometimes you have to value other things over tradition. Trump has proven himself to be an impulsive and unpredictable president, so if he continues to have access to this classified information, a lot of previous evidence points to the fact he will abuse it again. Additionally, giving him this new information would provide no benefit other than to maintain tradition. Especially in our current situation, we definitely need to diminish the risk of misinformation and many of Trump's loyal followers will believe a lot of what he says. Trump shouldn't continue to have access to these briefings as the risk of giving him this information simply greatly outweighs the pros.
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